Over at the Goodbye, Microsoft web site, Brad R. takes Ubuntu to task for abandoning dial-up modem users. Apparently Ubuntu no longer includes the GnomePPP dial-up package in the distribution, without which you can't get online via dial-up. It gets better: if you do have some way to connect, when you download something from the Ubuntu repository, the first thing Ubuntu does is update its 16+ megabyte repository index. Happy waiting! Brad concludes that "Ubuntu is for broadband users only."

Many people hear "broadband" and think "fast," and it is, but the two are not totally synonymous.

I have fast Internet through my cell phone (faster than basic Road Runner), but the phone identifies itself as a CDC ACM modem. So basically, it's a very fast serial port on the USB bus, and it uses the AT command set for its basic control.